Neil Gust and Elliott Smith met and formed the band; both were attending classes at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts at the time. In clubs in nearby Northampton, the pair would perform original songs, as well as covers of songs by Ringo Starr and Elvis Costello.[1]
Upon their graduation from Hampshire and return to Portland, Smith and Gust reconfigured the band into the line-up it is known for today. Brandt Peterson played bass on the albums Dead Air and Cop and Speeder, the EP Yellow No. 5, and several singles. Peterson left the band in August 1994. Sam Coomes, a friend of Smith's, was brought in to play bass, and played on Heatmiser's last album Mic City Sons and on tour. Tony Lash went to high school with Elliott Smith, and played flute in the school band and drums in Smith's band Stranger Than Fiction. He left Heatmiser in late 1996, prior to what would be their final tour. John Moen (later of The Decemberists) was brought in to play drums.[2]
Brendan Benson was the opening act for Heatmiser on that tour. Reporter Jeff Stark's article about a date on that tour, a December 1, 1996 show at San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill club, recalled Smith as "part charismatic rock star, part bar-band regular, oozing nonchalant confidence".
Heatmiser also had a less-serious side:
 Somewhere in the middle of the set the band started goofing off; Gust pushed Smith down in the middle of a song. Later, Heatmiser tossed self-effacing cracks at the audience, perhaps to parody Smith's reputation for despondence. Between songs, bassist Coomes proclaimed, 'We've got Søren Kierkegaard on guitar.' To which Smith jokingly announced, 'This one's called Fear and Trembling.' I suppose I should have known that any band named after the claymation villain in the dated The Year Without a Santa Claus would have a sense of humor.[3] 
Heatmiser was labeled as a "homocore" or "queercore" band by the mainstream press, because of the themes espoused in the songs of the openly gay Gust.[1] It was also speculated that Gust and Smith were lovers. Elliott Smith repeatedly denied this in interviews or that he was even gay. In one interview Smith said he "would probably be a lot happier if [he] was gay." Smith also said that Gust's being gay was "not a big deal, [nor] anyone's business".
Elliott Smith later dismissed the group's music as "loud", and his own singing on their first album as "an embarrassment". Smith also bemoaned that being in Heatmiser changed the songs he was writing at the time into "loud rock songs with no dynamic."[1] Heatmiser also frustrated the members of the band. In an interview, Smith recalled:
 I was being a total actor, acting out a role I didn't even like. I couldn't come out and show where I was coming from. I was always disguised in this loud rock band. [In the beginning] we all got together, everyone wanted to play in a band and it was fun, then after a couple of years we realized that none of us really liked this kind of music, and that we didn't have to play this way. You didn't have to turn all these songs you wrote into these loud... things." He continued: "It was kinda weird  people that came to our shows, a majority of them were people I couldn't relate to at all. Why aren't there more people like me coming to our shows? Well, it's because I'm not even playing the kind of music that I really like.[1] 
Later in his career, Smith believed that his blatant dismissal of the band in interviews for his solo albums hurt Neil Gust and led to discontent between them. The success of Roman Candle and Elliott Smith caused tensions in the band, especially between Smith and Gust, and led to the band's break-up.[4]
The band broke up in the fall of 1996. Gust went on to play in the band No. 2. Coomes carried on as half of Quasi, as well as playing as a guest musician for Built to Spill and Sleater-Kinney. Lash currently keeps himself busy as a producer. He produced the first two albums by Dandy Warhols and he helped with the production of Death Cab for Cutie's first two studio albums (Something About Airplanes and We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes). Peterson currently teaches anthropology at Michigan State University[5]. Smith went on to a successful solo career before his death on October 21, 2003.